


Maybe After

by kcstories



Category: Harry Potter - Rowling
Genre: Community: the_serpent_den, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-04-25
Updated: 2007-04-25
Packaged: 2017-10-10 10:12:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/98573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kcstories/pseuds/kcstories
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Time spent in the library leads to an unexpected friendship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Maybe After

**Author's Note:**

> Pairing: Hermione/Gregory (Ron/Lavender, Neville/Pansy)   
> Warnings: 6th year AU, Mild angst, run-on sentences.   
> Disclaimer: The Potterverse is JKR's, not mine.

No one had seen it coming, but not long after Dumbledore’s funeral, things between the three friends, the once inseparable trio, changed. They grew more distant, as their grief pulled them apart rather than brought them closer together.

Or perhaps Harry’s feelings of guilt are primarily to blame for the rift that now seems irreparable. The boy spends most of his time brooding these days, mulling over things that should have been different, could have been different, and that other road he might have travelled, if only he’d had the nerve.

And while Harry prefers to withdraw within himself, denial is more Ron’s thing, his coping mechanism of choice, if you will, though he’s not really coping. Not at all. 

He flaunts his current fling - or whatever it is - with Lavender Brown in front of everyone, and Hermione’s convinced his mother would be appalled if she knew. Molly raised her children better than that.

Hermione is also disgusted with him, but not for the selfish reasons everyone else assumes. She may love him, and she always will in the sisterly sense of the word, but his current behaviour is far from appealing, and any romantic interest she may have had in him once melted like snow the day he started to fancy himself as something of a ladies’ man.

Besides, she prefers the company of books to people lately and she spends even more time in the library than ever before, as if she wants to wrap herself in a cozy cocoon of words and forget everything else around her. 

No one really notices, because it doesn't seem too different from what she has always done, and besides, people are far too pre-occupied with themselves these days. And with sorrow and anxiety and a niggling uncertainty over whatever fate awaits them next. 

The old castle has never before felt quite this icy cold, as if it’s shrouded in a veil of mourning and suspicion and solitude.

The first few days she's usually in the library alone, save for the occasional first year who's still naïve enough to believe that everything will be all right in the end, that nothing much will change, and that it still makes sense to study because exams are the most important thing in their world.

On the tenth day, _he_ joins her - Gregory Goyle.

Well, not literally. He just happens to come in too. He doesn't say a word, doesn't even acknowledge her presence. He just takes a thick book from one of the shelves, sits down at the other end of the room, and begins to read in silence. 

He comes every day now. He’s always there when she arrives, and he's still reading when she leaves. 

He, too, seems to want to lose himself in that safe haven of books.

Hermione doesn’t know whether that’s because he no longer has Malfoy to guard – an occupation she's sure no one needs – or if he’s simply bored because Vincent Crabbe’s mother unexpectedly moved to France (or fled there, depending on one’s perspective) and took her son with her.

Whatever the reason, she doesn’t suppose it matters much. He’s clearly not there to vex her. 

Most evenings, they sit in silence on opposite sides of the room, just the two of them. She ignores him and he does the same with her.

That type of attitude seems to have become the general consensus lately, even among the most ardent of Gryffindor and Slytherin students. 

No one seems eager to fight anymore, as if some unspoken truce of “live and let live” has set in.

But honestly, she decides, that’s not the sort of development anyone should regret or complain about. It’s not a bad thing at all, and she’s sure Dumbledore would have been proud. 

This is the closest Hogwarts has come to House Unity in many decades. 

* * *

Three weeks pass without any notable incidents. 

The school should have closed, and that’s what they were going to do, but then McGonagall changed her mind, deciding that, in spite of everything, the students would be safer at Hogwarts.

Especially the Slytherins. 

Hermione doesn’t know what to think or whether she fully approves of going against the Ministry’s advice and many of the parents’ wishes, but on the other hand, there is also such a thing as safety in numbers.

She suddenly hears a deep voice to her right. "Excuse me, but are you done with that one, Granger?” 

_Gregory Goyle can talk,_ is the first thing that springs to mind, and the realization almost makes her laugh, but in the end she doesn’t because prejudice is hardly funny and besides, he hasn’t bothered her once during all that time they spent here. He deserves a chance, at the very least.

She nods and says with a hesitant smile, “It’s all yours.”

"Cheers." He gives her a lopsided grin, picks up the book and returns to his seat.

She thinks he looks almost shy and it’s the last thing she would have expected.

* * *

A week later, cramming begins, though it’s clear that most people are just going through the motions, acting on auto-pilot as though there’s nothing wrong and everything is just like it was before. 

But really, that couldn’t be farther from the truth, and who do they think they’re kidding?

Probably not even themselves. 

More students file into the library. The place is alive again, suddenly very busy. 

All the other tables are taken. "Mind if I sit here?" he asks her.

Hermione just shrugs. 

He smiles gratefully, and they study in silence. 

That too, soon turns into a routine. 

They don’t speak much, aside from “Hello”, “Good night” or “Have you finished with that book?” but she enjoys his company anyway. 

Not before long, she finds herself looking forward to being in the library, even more than before, and not just because of the books. Her moments with Gregory are like a much-needed calm inside a devastating storm, and a more than welcome escape from the ever-present denial that seems to be suffocating the student body.

On the third day of the fifth week, her Quill breaks. Without a word, he offers her one of his.

She smiles and says, “Thanks.”

He returns the smile and mutters, “You’re welcome,” and he almost looks shy again.

* * *

It takes Ron six weeks before he finds out. Quite coincidentally because it seemed Lavender suddenly remembered where the library was. 

"What the bloody hell are you thinking, getting all cozy with one of Malfoy's cronies?” he shouts at Hermione that evening. “Wasn’t what Malfoy and Snape did bad enough? Not to mention Crabbe suddenly leaving the country? Doesn’t that prove to you what kind of scum these people are?”

“Oh, put a sock in it, Ron! You don't know the first thing about any of this," Harry snaps unexpectedly. He slams his Quidditch magazine down on the table, hard, and he exits the Common Room.

The next day, Hermione learns that Harry has left. He snuck out of the castle to go looking for Malfoy and Snape, and she's not as surprised as she might have been.

* * *

During the seventh week, Ron continues to ignore her, and Harry still hasn't returned, but she struggles not to worry.

There’s a Hogsmeade weekend coming up. Which seems like a strange idea, but apparently there will be strict supervision, tightened security and in her speech, McGonagall stresses the importance of lifting the students’ spirits in these dark and ominous times.

Though the sad truth of the matter is that all the Levitation spells in the world probably couldn’t manage that. 

"Would you like to go with me?" he asks her that evening, as she is getting up to leave. He doesn’t look very sure of himself, nothing like the arrogant thug she once perceived him as, when he says those words, and she finds the invitation quite sweet and flattering and then she thinks, _Why not? It might be a nice distraction._

And besides, she has become increasingly fascinated by him and often finds herself wondering what makes him tick, what he thinks about, and how he fills his time when he’s not with her. She’s sure he misses Malfoy and Crabbe. He didn’t seem to have any other friends.

"I wish we could come back every year," he tells her. “Things seem so much simpler here at Hogwarts.”

And she nods, because she knows exactly what he means. 

As he walks her back to the Tower, Ron looks angry and Ginny is surprised. But Neville seems to understand. He's seeing a lot of Pansy Parkinson these days.

Hermione thinks it's strange how tragedy will unite the most unlikely of people.

* * *

On June 30th, he kisses her goodbye at King's Cross Station. 

Her parents are there. And he's nice to them, polite. He doesn't seem to care that they're Muggles.

She doesn't know when she'll see him again, or even if.

His parents will be going into hiding, and so will he, seeking safety somewhere in Northern Europe. 

But is anyone ever truly safe from the Dark Lord?

She'll pray for him, to any deity she can think of, and hope for the best.

She waves at him from the backseat of her parents’ car.

_Maybe,_ she thinks, _maybe after the war._


End file.
